Restoring Hot Toy John Connor Jacket.

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IKE-CON

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There is a thread I'm involved in over on OSW that may help here as well.

A lot of people are seeing the first Hot Toy John Connor jacket starting to
fall apart. Well, not the whole thing, just the pleather on it.

It's just the poor quality pleather they used on it.
It's so thin and once it starts having issues, it's done.

So, I started today working on the 2 I have, adding real leather.
Of course I use them for Van Zan vests. So I was cutting into these day one.
But a $5.00 piece of leather, should be enough to do a full restore on both.

So I'm adding this here to show you what I'm doing to restore them
and maybe it can help others do the same.

Once finished I'll give them a nice color wash and they should last for decades.
The wash will also blend the thread into the leather more.

The thing that really works on this jacket is the double stitched sectional
parts. The little bars that held down the pleather. They're not going anywhere,
so I use those as the anchor for the sections and as the
guide on how to cut the pieces to fit. In the end they will be covered,
but for others who have the entire jacket, you can still anchor the leather
to them, just don't cover them to retain the original look. Sorry I can't
show you the sleeves, but you'll get the general idea of what to do from the rest.

I'm doing them section by section and blending them together.

Here's some quick pictures on the 1st parts I've started.

HTJCJACKETFIX1_zps273c32d4.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIX2_zps634cbde9.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIX3_zps4ded87a3.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIX4_zps432c7ee4.jpg


That's just the starting phases and I'll update with more pictures as I go.
 
Last edited:
Wow. I hope this isn't happening to mine, ill have to check it out.
 
Awesome project, I have heard about this issue more than once, cool to see someone doing something constructive about it, fantastic work so far BTW:clap I just went and checked my Connor out after reading your post, I took a real good look in detail and I'm happy to report it looks fine, I even moved it around to see if any cracking was developing and still good:yess:

The jacket on this version of the figure was then and is still now a beautiful piece of 1/6 tailoring, such a shame many people are having this issue, its a real highlight of the overall look of this figure. Good luck on your project, looking forward to seeing the completed jacket in real leather:)
 
Are you still going to have the "fur" on the back of the jacket Ike con? A shame this is happening, I always thought the jacket was real leather.
 
Awesome project, I have heard about this issue more than once, cool to see someone doing something constructive about it, fantastic work so far BTW:clap I just went and checked my Connor out after reading your post, I took a real good look in detail and I'm happy to report it looks fine, I even moved it around to see if any cracking was developing and still good:yess:

The jacket on this version of the figure was then and is still now a beautiful piece of 1/6 tailoring, such a shame many people are having this issue, its a real highlight of the overall look of this figure. Good luck on your project, looking forward to seeing the completed jacket in real leather:)

Thanks. All I have to say, is there is nothing better than adding the real leather, you get the feel, the smell and durability.


Are you still going to have the "fur" on the back of the jacket Ike con? A shame this is happening, I always thought the jacket was real leather.

I don't need to keep the fur on the back, because they're for my Reign of Fire Van Zan vests.

But I will do the next one with it on, to show the process.
 
Here's an update. I covered the first one and here's a pic of the 2 next to each other.
No wash or anything, just raw as is. So the look will change a lot when I do the wash
tomorrow.

htjcjacket1_zpsae5c9c00.jpg


htjcjacket4_zpsbc490d6f.jpg


This is more the actual color. The lighting throws it off a bit in some of the other photos.

And yes the stitching is not prefectly uniform, but it wont matter after the wash. :)

htjcjacket3_zps77dd1749.jpg


htjcjacket2_zps19632569.jpg


Then I will be doing the other one with 10 section leather covering. Where as this 1st one is
only done with 6 panels of leather covering. The second one might give a better idea
how it will look if you did the original jacket.
 
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Looks good ike con. Are you going to do the same for Connor's jacket? If so I'd definitely be interested. I'd hate to see this happen to mine, but by the sounds of things it's inevitable.
 
Looks good ike con. Are you going to do the same for Connor's jacket? If so I'd definitely be interested. I'd hate to see this happen to mine, but by the sounds of things it's inevitable.

These are the Connor jackets without the sleeves and the only ones I have.

Though the sleeves would be easy, just with 2 different colored leathers.
 
These are the Connor jackets without the sleeves and the only ones I have.

Though the sleeves would be easy, just with 2 different colored leathers.

I know they are. I was asking if you planned to do any John Connor jackets, as I and Im sure many others would be interested.
 
I know they are. I was asking if you planned to do any John Connor jackets, as I and Im sure many others would be interested.

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you.

Though I could reverse engineer one of these and most likely get a very good idea how to make
one with sleeves. I don't have the proper tools to get the job done to the standard I would like.

Hard to get any semblance of proper stitching uniformity by hand sewing.
Really need a professional grade sewing machine. Something I don't have and
most likely couldn't afford right now.
 
Well, here's the first one after a few washes. Pretty close to the correct color and
now harder to see the thread.

And the best thing; it's real leather now..:clap

HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL1_zpsd47d0cc0.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL2_zps16b53703.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL6_zps675887b6.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL4_zpsb9649af1.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL5_zps1f5e0a4a.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL3_zpsbe279c63.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL7_zpsf3ea01cc.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIXFINAL8_zps7c479071.jpg


The next one will be a bit harder with 10 leather panels, so more threads and more to wash away.
 
Last edited:
There is a thread I'm involved in over on OSW that may help here as well.

A lot of people are seeing the first Hot Toy John Connor jacket starting to
fall apart. Well, not the whole thing, just the pleather on it.

It's just the poor quality pleather they used on it.
It's so thin and once it starts having issues, it's done.

So, I started today working on the 2 I have, adding real leather.
Of course I use them for Van Zan vests. So I was cutting into these day one.
But a $5.00 piece of leather, should be enough to do a full restore on both.

So I'm adding this here to show you what I'm doing to restore them
and maybe it can help others do the same.

Once finished I'll give them a nice color wash and they should last for decades.
The wash will also blend the thread into the leather more.

The thing that really works on this jacket is the double stitched sectional
parts. The little bars that held down the pleather. They're not going anywhere,
so I use those as the anchor for the sections and as the
guide on how to cut the pieces to fit. In the end they will be covered,
but for others who have the entire jacket, you can still anchor the leather
to them, just don't cover them to retain the original look. Sorry I can't
show you the sleeves, but you'll get the general idea of what to do from the rest.

I'm doing them section by section and blending them together.

Here's some quick pictures on the 1st parts I've started.

HTJCJACKETFIX1_zps273c32d4.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIX2_zps634cbde9.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIX3_zps4ded87a3.jpg


HTJCJACKETFIX4_zps432c7ee4.jpg


That's just the starting phases and I'll update with more pictures as I go.
So, did you ever finish the John Conner Terminator Salvation real leather jackets?
 
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